Ancient shell mound cleaned up

Shell mounds, such as the one located near the south end of Skidaway Island, are believed to be the result of American Indians discarding their trash, thus resulting in a mound of debris that built up over time.

It took Sandee Winter less than a minute to reach back thousands of years on Skidaway Island on Wednesday morning.

Crouched on the edge of an American Indian shell mound, she scanned layers of oysters packed tight over the centuries. In an instant she spied a buff-colored pottery shard the size of her palm and eased it out of the excavation hole. The fragment was unpatterned, indicating it could be very old, perhaps crafted by an American Indian thousands of years ago.

"When I can tell what's mixed in with the clay I'll have a better idea of the dating," said Winter, an archeology volunteer at the University of Georgia Marine Extension Service.

Winter hunted for ancient pottery exposed on the surface on the site while nine volunteers cleared away newer debris, including Budweiser cans, Snickers wrappers, broken glass and a golf club head. They filled a dozen trash bags in an hour.

Landings resident and SCAD professor Russ Wigh organized the clean-up effort after he realized last fall that teenagers had turned the archaeologically-important shell mound into a hang out. The Landings Association completed the cleanup by hauling away a wooden treehouse complete with a hammock and lawn chairs. Eventually, Wigh wants to see interpretative signs posted at the site.

Archaeologist Chester DePratter investigated the mound in the mid-70s when Braniger, the real estate arm of Union Camp, began developing Skidaway, according to Chris McCabe, deputy state archaeologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

But DePratter's archaeological finds are largely unknown to most island residents.

Wigh's interest in the site prompted McCabe and others to take a second look.

Shell mounds are fairly common in the coastal Southeast, but at about 375 feet long and 190 feet wide, this one is unusually large. It may have been part of a permanent or seasonal settlement for native Americans dating back as far as 3,000 B.C., according to McCabe.

From about 3,000 B.C. to 1,000 B.C., people living in what is now Georgia began leaving behind mounds of shells, or shell middens that contained the remnants of their everyday lives. The production of these middens continued in later times during which they increased in size and took on increasing ceremonial and political importance.

Midden mound sites in the Savannah area have provided good information about the initial phases of pottery production along the Georgia coast.

More important than mounds are shell rings, which are circular to horseshoe-shaped piles of shell (primarily oyster) ranging in size from 50 meters to 250 meters across. Shell rings are believed to be the result of American Indians living in circular villages and discarding their trash behind their homes, thus resulting in a circular ring of debris that built up over time. In other words, the rings are built from the refuse of daily living.

The shell rings are filled not only with shells, but also include the bones of catfish, mullet, deer, raccoons and alligators.

Some of the oldest pottery in North America was found at the Sapelo Shell Ring complex. The natives of Sapelo appear to be some of the first people in North America to settle into permanent villages.